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OBJECTIVEINTERFACE
Core ORB Product Line
4 Simplicity: Developers write less code. And the code they write contains just simple method calls. The ORB takes care of the details of messaging. More capability, less time.
4 Transparency: Developers write the same code indepen-dent of object location. CORBA’s transparent architecture means no recoding when objects are made local or made distributed. More flexible systems.
4 Independency: All calls are written the same regardless of the media. Details of differing media APIs are hidden. The ORB correctly sends calls to their destination via the chosen media. Less platform dependence.
4 Heterogeneity: CORBA is built to bridge differing proces-sors, operating systems, programming languages and transport media. The ORB provides significant portability and uniformity for a heterogeneous environment. Greater system interoperability.
4 Reliability: Errors are detected earlier in the project life-cycle. Typical messaging approaches detect errors only at integration time – when the system crashes. Using strongly type checked IDL interfaces, errors are detected earlier: at compile time. More reliable systems.
4 Rapidity: Developers build software faster – with less work to do. Alternatively, more capabilities can be add-ed since the team can focus on the application design rather than the infrastructure “plumbing.” Faster time to market.
4 Flexibility: Late life-cycle optimization (LALO) becomes possible. Rather than determining the location of objects a priori, the location can be determined based on em-pirical data. Changing the location later doesn’t require major changes to the software. More efficient systems.
4 Scalability: ORB speed, size and capabilities can be optimized based on the scale of the project (up or down). ORBexpress can be tuned for deeply embedded systems and for large-scale efforts. Long-lived systems.
4 Fast, Lean and Predictable: Built for Real-time appli-cations. All of these ORBexpress benefits come with minimal overhead. The ORBexpress architecture is built from the ground up to be predictable and have minimal jitter. Systems that solve tomorrow’s problems.
Performance
Introduction
ORBs designed from the ground up for the high-performance, real-time and embedded domain – such as ORBexpress – are fundamentally different. In crucial performance metrics, such as latency and footprint, ORBexpress is an order of magnitude faster and leaner than its desktop counterparts.
ORBexpress Desktop ORBsFast (Microseconds) Slow (Milliseconds)Lean (Kilobytes) Fat (Megabytes)Predictable Jittery
Latency
Independent benchmarks prove that ORBexpress is the fastest ORB available. ORBexpress clients and servers add minimal overhead to the network transport. For small amounts of data passed as parameters, the ORB adds less than 10% to the network or inter-process transport time. For large amounts of data (more than 2K), the overhead drops to 3%. A sample comparison of ORBexpress versus socket times between two processors is shown at right.
Bandwidth
Programs transferring larger amounts of data are concerned more with the amount of data per second than with the latency. A large bandwidth transport is of no use if the ORB limits the
program to a fraction of the total potential. ORBexpress has been carefully engineered to ensure that it’s overhead pro-portionally decreases as the amount of data increases. Other ORBs loose performance when more and more data is sent.
Plug-in transports eliminate the overhead of TCP/IP by directly accessing the underlying media APIs. ORBexpress supports a shared memory plug-in transport that eliminates the TCP/IP stack. Examining the second chart on the right shows that the slope of the curve for the shared memory transport is lower. The shared memory transport scales more effectively and yields better bandwidth. Our zero copy technology yields more significant bandwidth improvements.
High Performance Advantage
Comparing ORBexpress performance to the network transport illustrates what is maximally possible. Comparisons with other ORBs reveal what vendors accomplish. Data for the top chart at right is based on published results from tests conducted by Lockheed Martin ATL. Note: the other ORBs overhead exceeds ORBexpress total round-trip time.
Visit www.ois.com to review independent studies including ones from Lockheed Martin ATL and Boeing Phantom works (for the RT DII COE) and an article from IEEE Communications on CORBA in Software Defined Radio.
What Is ORBexpress?
Typically, engineers create custom communications infrastructures for each project. When the under-lying technologies change, the software must be rebuilt. The ORBexpress high performance approach to comunications architectures insulates the team from these changes. Developers using ORBexpress deliver product quicker and accommodate changes easier.
Key Values
CORBA Overview
CORBA – The Common Object Request Broker Architecture – provides for simplified distributed applications. Over the past decade, the 800+ member organizations of the Object Management Group (OMG) have created an open standard for hetero-geneous, distributed object-oriented Middleware for communications. The Object Request Broker (ORB) is the product imple-menting the CORBA standard. A focused subgroup of these members has created additional standards specifically to support the high-performance, real-time and embedded communities.
Easy Access to Better Transports
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Adds Minimal Overhead
Key Architecture Concepts
The ORBexpress product family is Objective Interface’s high-performance implementation of the latest CORBA technology. All members of the ORBexpress family are related by a com-mon architecture. ORBexpress is designed from the ground up for the high-performance, real-time, and embedded market. The architecture’s goals are to be:
4 Reliable 4 Lean
4 Fast 4 Predictable
Significant effort has been taken to optimize all layers of the product. The result is a system that is tuned much more thor-oughly than any one project could afford to do. The architec-ture features:
4 Real-time: Predictable behavior in an end-to-end round trip with predictable ORB internals
4 Interoperability: Over 50% of our customers have tested ORBexpress with another ORB
4 Multiplexed Connections: Multiple threads in a program share one transport connection to minimize resource usage
4 Multi-threaded: Servers process requests using multiple threads to ensure minimal latency and predictable response
4 Consistent: A single shared code base means that features and fixes added to one platform are reflected in the others.
4 Fault Resilient: ORBexpress is designed to ensure that communication faults are detected and managed. Devel-opers are provided with tools to help achieve robust and reliable software.
The bottom line is cost and schedule: ORBexpress saves projects money and time without the overhead of other approaches.
4 Simplicity: Developers write less code. And the code they write contains just simple method calls. The ORB takes care of the details of messaging. More capability, less time.
4 Transparency: Developers write the same code indepen-dent of object location. CORBA’s transparent architecture means no recoding when objects are made local or made distributed. More flexible systems.
4 Independency: All calls are written the same regardless of the media. Details of differing media APIs are hidden. The ORB correctly sends calls to their destination via the chosen media. Less platform dependence.
4 Heterogeneity: CORBA is built to bridge differing proces-sors, operating systems, programming languages and transport media. The ORB provides significant portability and uniformity for a heterogeneous environment. Greater system interoperability.
4 Reliability: Errors are detected earlier in the project life-cycle. Typical messaging approaches detect errors only at integration time – when the system crashes. Using strongly type checked IDL interfaces, errors are detected earlier: at compile time. More reliable systems.
4 Rapidity: Developers build software faster – with less work to do. Alternatively, more capabilities can be add-ed since the team can focus on the application design rather than the infrastructure “plumbing.” Faster time to market.
4 Flexibility: Late life-cycle optimization (LALO) becomes possible. Rather than determining the location of objects a priori, the location can be determined based on em-pirical data. Changing the location later doesn’t require major changes to the software. More efficient systems.
4 Scalability: ORB speed, size and capabilities can be optimized based on the scale of the project (up or down). ORBexpress can be tuned for deeply embedded systems and for large-scale efforts. Long-lived systems.
4 Fast, Lean and Predictable: Built for Real-time appli-cations. All of these ORBexpress benefits come with minimal overhead. The ORBexpress architecture is built from the ground up to be predictable and have minimal jitter. Systems that solve tomorrow’s problems.
Performance
Introduction
ORBs designed from the ground up for the high-performance, real-time and embedded domain – such as ORBexpress – are fundamentally different. In crucial performance metrics, such as latency and footprint, ORBexpress is an order of magnitude faster and leaner than its desktop counterparts.
ORBexpress Desktop ORBsFast (Microseconds) Slow (Milliseconds)Lean (Kilobytes) Fat (Megabytes)Predictable Jittery
Latency
Independent benchmarks prove that ORBexpress is the fastest ORB available. ORBexpress clients and servers add minimal overhead to the network transport. For small amounts of data passed as parameters, the ORB adds less than 10% to the network or inter-process transport time. For large amounts of data (more than 2K), the overhead drops to 3%. A sample comparison of ORBexpress versus socket times between two processors is shown at right.
Bandwidth
Programs transferring larger amounts of data are concerned more with the amount of data per second than with the latency. A large bandwidth transport is of no use if the ORB limits the
program to a fraction of the total potential. ORBexpress has been carefully engineered to ensure that it’s overhead pro-portionally decreases as the amount of data increases. Other ORBs loose performance when more and more data is sent.
Plug-in transports eliminate the overhead of TCP/IP by directly accessing the underlying media APIs. ORBexpress supports a shared memory plug-in transport that eliminates the TCP/IP stack. Examining the second chart on the right shows that the slope of the curve for the shared memory transport is lower. The shared memory transport scales more effectively and yields better bandwidth. Our zero copy technology yields more significant bandwidth improvements.
High Performance Advantage
Comparing ORBexpress performance to the network transport illustrates what is maximally possible. Comparisons with other ORBs reveal what vendors accomplish. Data for the top chart at right is based on published results from tests conducted by Lockheed Martin ATL. Note: the other ORBs overhead exceeds ORBexpress total round-trip time.
Visit www.ois.com to review independent studies including ones from Lockheed Martin ATL and Boeing Phantom works (for the RT DII COE) and an article from IEEE Communications on CORBA in Software Defined Radio.
What Is ORBexpress?
Typically, engineers create custom communications infrastructures for each project. When the under-lying technologies change, the software must be rebuilt. The ORBexpress high performance approach to comunications architectures insulates the team from these changes. Developers using ORBexpress deliver product quicker and accommodate changes easier.
Key Values
CORBA Overview
CORBA – The Common Object Request Broker Architecture – provides for simplified distributed applications. Over the past decade, the 800+ member organizations of the Object Management Group (OMG) have created an open standard for hetero-geneous, distributed object-oriented Middleware for communications. The Object Request Broker (ORB) is the product imple-menting the CORBA standard. A focused subgroup of these members has created additional standards specifically to support the high-performance, real-time and embedded communities.
Easy Access to Better Transports
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ORB over TCP/IP Loopback
ORB over Shared Memory
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Adds Minimal Overhead
Key Architecture Concepts
The ORBexpress product family is Objective Interface’s high-performance implementation of the latest CORBA technology. All members of the ORBexpress family are related by a com-mon architecture. ORBexpress is designed from the ground up for the high-performance, real-time, and embedded market. The architecture’s goals are to be:
4 Reliable 4 Lean
4 Fast 4 Predictable
Significant effort has been taken to optimize all layers of the product. The result is a system that is tuned much more thor-oughly than any one project could afford to do. The architec-ture features:
4 Real-time: Predictable behavior in an end-to-end round trip with predictable ORB internals
4 Interoperability: Over 50% of our customers have tested ORBexpress with another ORB
4 Multiplexed Connections: Multiple threads in a program share one transport connection to minimize resource usage
4 Multi-threaded: Servers process requests using multiple threads to ensure minimal latency and predictable response
4 Consistent: A single shared code base means that features and fixes added to one platform are reflected in the others.
4 Fault Resilient: ORBexpress is designed to ensure that communication faults are detected and managed. Devel-opers are provided with tools to help achieve robust and reliable software.
The bottom line is cost and schedule: ORBexpress saves projects money and time without the overhead of other approaches.
Distributed Embedded Concepts and Issues
Background
The embedded market is heterogeneous. It is fragmented – no single CPU type, RTOS or communications media dominates. Many teams create project specific solutions. The physical environment for these systems often imposes constraints on the ORB.
Ingredients of an Embedded ORB
4 Wide Availability: Available a variety of CPUs and RTOS – from the common to the unusual
4 Host Development and Test: Develop and test before lim-ited target hardware is available
4 Mass Market Affordable: No ORB run-time royalties See sidebar at right
4 Plug-in Transports: See sidebar at right
4 Minimal Footprint: Fit deeply embedded systems con-straints
4 Scalable Architecture: Address both small and large sys-tems’ constrains (time vs. space)
4 Professional Technical Support: Partners ready to ensure your project success
Priority Propagation
The primary goal of Real-time CORBA is end-to-end pre-dictability. Real-time systems achieve this through priority based scheduling. Because the remote system doesn’t know about the originating priority the system is indeter-minate. Real-time ORBs solve this problem by propagating the priority to the server. The result is a distributed priority inheritance and the ability to correctly schedule distrib-uted processes.
The heterogeneous nature of CORBA is important in prior-ity propagation. Most RTOS have differing ranges of pri-orities. The Real-time CORBA standard defines a universal priority range. ORBs supply the ability to map between the native and universal. This is just one more way that CORBA provides a portable and transparent approach to distrib-uted systems building.
Keep Unit Costs Low
It is important that the ORB does not increase your product’s unit costs. That’s why there is no run-time license cost for ORBexpress. It is also very difficult for many organiza-tions to track these costs. Tracking often costs more than the run-times do. The ORB characteristics can affect your cost of goods. ORBexpress has low latency and a lean footprint. That way the ORB doesn’t force the use of a faster CPU (cost and cooling) or require more RAM (costs or board layout). The impact of the ORB on the project’s bottom line is much more than just the cost of the product license.
Plug-In Transports
Real-time systems require a predictable end-to-end client to server call chain: Real-time ORB, RTOS, and Transport. Em-bedded environments have unique hardware needs beyond Ethernet. A plug-in transport mechanism is needed.
ORBexpress developers can create their own transports. ORBexpress is bundled with additional transports (e.g., shared memory, unreliable IP multicast, RACE++, etc.). Other transports are separately available (e.g., reliable UDP, VxMP, Myrinet). ORBexpress gives developers full control over media QoS settings. The QoS capabilities and propa-gated priorities are controlled for each band in a Real-time QoS interceptor.
Footprint
Many deeply embedded systems have limited RAM and flash memory available for the ORB. The ORB library must minimize memory use to leave room for the application and RTOS. Yet, systems with more generous resource limits may have issues with ORB scalability.
ORBexpress has been carefully tuned to provide minimal foot-print configurations. Developers can configure ORBexpress GT for C++ as small as 126 KB for the ORB library. The full ORBexpress RT for C++ ORB library is less than 250 KB. Careful attention to the generated code size ensures that clients and servers are embeddable. Developer choice of ORB feature configurations also controls the size. No ORB need be multiple megabytes in size.
Priority Banded Connections
Priority propagation ensures that the RTOS can schedule cor-rectly end-to-end. However, the network can still be a source of priority inversions. A high priority message may have to await the completion of a large, low priority, message. That represents a message based priority inversion. To avoid this bottleneck, Real-time CORBA supports Priority Banded Connections. The ORB sends messages over user specified bands based on the priorities and QoS involved. Developers can trade-off network and OS resource usage against priority inversions.
Distributed Priority InheritanceDistributed Real-time Concepts and Issues
Background
Hard and soft real-time systems are concerned with the timeliness of responses in addition to the correctness of the response. Having a fast ORB is important. This alone will not ensure a predictable end-to-end connection. Combining an enterprise or desktop ORB with an RTOS and predictable transport won’t work either (see the Distributed Priority In-heritance sidebar at right). To support the needs of hard and soft real-time systems, in 1999 the OMG adopted the Real-time CORBA standard.
Ingredients of a Real-time ORB
ORBexpress RT exceeds the OMG’s Real-time CORBA stan-dard. Capabilities include:
4 Distributed Priority Inheritance and Priority Propagation: See sidebar at right
4 Bounded Priority Inversions: Limits the time that low prior-ity activities suspend high priority activities
4 Predictable ORB Internals: Ensure that the data structures and algorithms execute in a bounded manner
4 Priority Ceiling Locking: Bounds priority inversion using ceiling locking mutexes
4 Real-time POA: Standard API for server configuration
4 Plug-In Transports: For media independent real-time ob-jects. See sidebar on following page
4 Quality of Service (QoS): Take advantage of media specific options on plug-in transports
Low Priority Log Data
Medium Priority Control Data
High Priority Mode Change Command
SD
Distributed Embedded Concepts and Issues
Background
The embedded market is heterogeneous. It is fragmented – no single CPU type, RTOS or communications media dominates. Many teams create project specific solutions. The physical environment for these systems often imposes constraints on the ORB.
Ingredients of an Embedded ORB
4 Wide Availability: Available a variety of CPUs and RTOS – from the common to the unusual
4 Host Development and Test: Develop and test before lim-ited target hardware is available
4 Mass Market Affordable: No ORB run-time royalties See sidebar at right
4 Plug-in Transports: See sidebar at right
4 Minimal Footprint: Fit deeply embedded systems con-straints
4 Scalable Architecture: Address both small and large sys-tems’ constrains (time vs. space)
4 Professional Technical Support: Partners ready to ensure your project success
Priority Propagation
The primary goal of Real-time CORBA is end-to-end pre-dictability. Real-time systems achieve this through priority based scheduling. Because the remote system doesn’t know about the originating priority the system is indeter-minate. Real-time ORBs solve this problem by propagating the priority to the server. The result is a distributed priority inheritance and the ability to correctly schedule distrib-uted processes.
The heterogeneous nature of CORBA is important in prior-ity propagation. Most RTOS have differing ranges of pri-orities. The Real-time CORBA standard defines a universal priority range. ORBs supply the ability to map between the native and universal. This is just one more way that CORBA provides a portable and transparent approach to distrib-uted systems building.
Keep Unit Costs Low
It is important that the ORB does not increase your product’s unit costs. That’s why there is no run-time license cost for ORBexpress. It is also very difficult for many organiza-tions to track these costs. Tracking often costs more than the run-times do. The ORB characteristics can affect your cost of goods. ORBexpress has low latency and a lean footprint. That way the ORB doesn’t force the use of a faster CPU (cost and cooling) or require more RAM (costs or board layout). The impact of the ORB on the project’s bottom line is much more than just the cost of the product license.
Plug-In Transports
Real-time systems require a predictable end-to-end client to server call chain: Real-time ORB, RTOS, and Transport. Em-bedded environments have unique hardware needs beyond Ethernet. A plug-in transport mechanism is needed.
ORBexpress developers can create their own transports. ORBexpress is bundled with additional transports (e.g., shared memory, unreliable IP multicast, RACE++, etc.). Other transports are separately available (e.g., reliable UDP, VxMP, Myrinet). ORBexpress gives developers full control over media QoS settings. The QoS capabilities and propa-gated priorities are controlled for each band in a Real-time QoS interceptor.
Footprint
Many deeply embedded systems have limited RAM and flash memory available for the ORB. The ORB library must minimize memory use to leave room for the application and RTOS. Yet, systems with more generous resource limits may have issues with ORB scalability.
ORBexpress has been carefully tuned to provide minimal foot-print configurations. Developers can configure ORBexpress GT for C++ as small as 126 KB for the ORB library. The full ORBexpress RT for C++ ORB library is less than 250 KB. Careful attention to the generated code size ensures that clients and servers are embeddable. Developer choice of ORB feature configurations also controls the size. No ORB need be multiple megabytes in size.
Priority Banded Connections
Priority propagation ensures that the RTOS can schedule cor-rectly end-to-end. However, the network can still be a source of priority inversions. A high priority message may have to await the completion of a large, low priority, message. That represents a message based priority inversion. To avoid this bottleneck, Real-time CORBA supports Priority Banded Connections. The ORB sends messages over user specified bands based on the priorities and QoS involved. Developers can trade-off network and OS resource usage against priority inversions.
Distributed Priority InheritanceDistributed Real-time Concepts and Issues
Background
Hard and soft real-time systems are concerned with the timeliness of responses in addition to the correctness of the response. Having a fast ORB is important. This alone will not ensure a predictable end-to-end connection. Combining an enterprise or desktop ORB with an RTOS and predictable transport won’t work either (see the Distributed Priority In-heritance sidebar at right). To support the needs of hard and soft real-time systems, in 1999 the OMG adopted the Real-time CORBA standard.
Ingredients of a Real-time ORB
ORBexpress RT exceeds the OMG’s Real-time CORBA stan-dard. Capabilities include:
4 Distributed Priority Inheritance and Priority Propagation: See sidebar at right
4 Bounded Priority Inversions: Limits the time that low prior-ity activities suspend high priority activities
4 Predictable ORB Internals: Ensure that the data structures and algorithms execute in a bounded manner
4 Priority Ceiling Locking: Bounds priority inversion using ceiling locking mutexes
4 Real-time POA: Standard API for server configuration
4 Plug-In Transports: For media independent real-time ob-jects. See sidebar on following page
4 Quality of Service (QoS): Take advantage of media specific options on plug-in transports
Low Priority Log Data
Medium Priority Control Data
High Priority Mode Change Command
SD
There are three products in the ORBexpress family:
ORBexpress ST:
The high-performance core of the product family. A robust, reliable implementation aimed at self-hosted systems. Available for C++, Java and Ada 95, each ORB is imple-mented in its native language. Platforms include Windows, Solaris and Linux. Fully multi-threaded, ORBexpress always multiplexes connections. This ensures that resource us-age scales efficiently. ORBexpress ST also supports fault resilient connections to allow failover for connections to alternative transports or servers.
ORBexpress GT:
Designed for high-performance embedded systems. ORBexpress GT adds to the capabilities of the ST product. ORBexpress GT is available only for C++. It has been ported to a variety of embedded targets from the common to the unusual. A scalable architecture provides flexibility in all size environments. It’s plug-in transport mechanism lets developers use unique embedded transports. ORBexpress GT is fast, and lean.
ORBexpress RT:
The flagship of the product line. ORBexpress RT adds to the capabilities of the ST and GT products. ORBexpress RT implements (and exceeds) the Real-time CORBA standard. It provides support for both hard and soft real-time systems. ORBexpress RT is designed to deliver predictable time be-havior, plug-in transports and transport Quality of Service. It is available for C++ and Ada 95. Each ORB is implemented in its native language. ORBexpress RT has been ported to a variety of Real-time OS’s and embedded targets from the common to the unusual.
Vertical Markets
ORBexpress has been in use since 1997. Projects using it have reached every stage of development: from initial definition to full-scale release, deployment, and maintenance. Projects encompass many different vertical domains including:
4 Telecom/Datacom: Optical switches, routers, cell phones, communications equipment, etc.
4 Defense & Aerospace: Embedded weapons, command, control, communications and intelligence systems, avion-ics, software radio, radar, etc.
4 Process Control: Laser powered nuclear fusion research, machine vision, industrial microscopes, etc.
4 Transportation: Shipboard command, control, monitoring and alarm systems; metro fare card collection, etc.
4 Consumer Electronics: Set top boxes, internet infrastruc-ture, etc.
The cross cutting requirements of safety and security are being addressed in a new multi-year initiative by Objective Interface. These new capabilities will be applicable across all the domains of ORBexpress use.
ORBexpress supports all major Object-Oriented languages. Each ORB is written in its native language, based on a com-mon ORBexpress architecture. Each implementation contains an linkable library and an IDL translator which generates
code according to the CORBA specified language mapping. In addition, each comes with a full suite of documentation and demo programs.
C++
4 Available: On a variety of platforms from the pedestrian to the unusual
4 Fast and Lean: Optimized for high-performance, real-time and embedded systems (the charts on the performance page are for the C++ ORB)
4 Configurable: ORBexpress GT can scale for systems large to small
Ada 95
4 Heterogeneous: Connect Ada to other languages
4 Simple: Easier than writing direct bindings to C++
4 Real-time: Integrated with Ada’s multitasking and the Ada Real-time Systems Annex
4 Reconfigurable: Incrementally add new components in any language
Training and Consulting
To complement the ORBexpress product line, Objective In-terface offers professional services, to support ORBexpress users. Training is available either at our facility or on-site at customer locations. Two 3-day courses are available which take developers from initial introduction to ORBexpress pro-ficiency and project readiness. Hands-on training provides 50% lecture and 50% lab.
Project specific mentoring and consulting is also available. Objective Interface supplies a variety of services to help ensure customer’s projects success. Going beyond tech support, mentoring can help with tasks such as:
4 Working with developers to create a CORBA based ob-ject-oriented design
4 Evaluating trade-offs in the architecture
4 Determining how to obtain the best performance from ORBexpress
4 Review and support during project reviews
Mentoring and consulting can take place at on-site custom-er locations or remotely via phone, fax, internet and e-mail.
Customer Service
Solid tech support is essential to ensuring successful product use. Objective Interface is committed to first-rate tech support. When Boeing’s Phantom Works group studied Real-time CORBA ORBs for the DII COE, they surveyed users and compared tech support experiences. ORBexpress tech support was ranked the best, scoring between 1.25 and 1.75 on a scale of -2.0 to +2.0.
The first year of ORBexpress tech support is included at no extra cost with each ORBexpress license. Our dedicated tech support group is available via phone, fax, internet and e-mail to answer questions, help reproduce bugs and de-termine workarounds and solutions. ORBexpress licensees current on maintenance receive all updates and upgrades issued for their platform.
Complete Language Coverage
Available Platforms
Project Highlights
Many companies and organizations have selected ORBex-press. Noteable projects that use ORBexpress include:
4 Kingcat Yacht Monitoring, Control and Alarm: Paranor AG’s onboard ship command and control system. This sys-tem is a 5 computer bridge control system for the Kingcat M270 70ft. catamaran. It monitors the engine, fuel, electri-cal, water, etc.
4 Lawrence Livermore Labs National Ignition Facility: This extremely large application controls 192 lasers (and as-sociated actuators, sensors, motors, etc.) that send a 2 Megajoule 25ns laser pulse into a deuterium pellet. A com-bination of workstations (for user interface and scientific control) and embedded device controllers are connected by real-time CORBA.
4 Software Defined Radio / Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS): A hard real-time, embedded application that trans-mits incoming and outgoing voice, video and data radio signals via D/A, A/D and software defined waveforms. It features a common software architecture (the Software Communications Architecture or SCA) defined using IDL and standardized via the OMG. ORBexpress has been used in more than 90% of the JTRS and SDR applications to date.
Java
4 High Performance: Combining the ORBexpress archi-tecture with pure Java. (See the chart below)
4 Interoperable: With ORBexpress for Ada and C++
4 Low Risk: Multiple languages supported by a single ORB vendor
4 Simplified Support: Common support team for all sides of the program
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Two Way CORBA Call Averages via Loopback800MHz P-III, Windows 2000, JDK v1.4.1 VM
Target same asthe Host?
Using defaultthread priorities?
TCP/IP theonly transport?
Not setting QoSper connection?
YES YES
YES YES
NO NO
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ST
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Processors Operating Systems Compilers
AlphaARMHPMercuryMIPSPowerPCSHSPARCx86XScale
AIXHP/UXINTEGRITYLinuxLynxOSMercury OSOSEPowerMaxQnX NeutrinoSGI IrixSun JVMSun SolarisTimeSys RT JVMTru64VxWorksWindows
ApexConcurrentDec CCEclipse JavaEGCSGCCGNATGreenHills MultiHP ACCObjectAdaSGI CCSun CCSun JavaVisual C++
ORBexpress Product Line
Product Selection
The ORBexpress product line covers all types of applications. Developers can choose the appropriate product for their appli-cation. Projects starting with one ORB can transparently move their code to the more advanced products.
There are three products in the ORBexpress family:
ORBexpress ST:
The high-performance core of the product family. A robust, reliable implementation aimed at self-hosted systems. Available for C++, Java and Ada 95, each ORB is imple-mented in its native language. Platforms include Windows, Solaris and Linux. Fully multi-threaded, ORBexpress always multiplexes connections. This ensures that resource us-age scales efficiently. ORBexpress ST also supports fault resilient connections to allow failover for connections to alternative transports or servers.
ORBexpress GT:
Designed for high-performance embedded systems. ORBexpress GT adds to the capabilities of the ST product. ORBexpress GT is available only for C++. It has been ported to a variety of embedded targets from the common to the unusual. A scalable architecture provides flexibility in all size environments. It’s plug-in transport mechanism lets developers use unique embedded transports. ORBexpress GT is fast, and lean.
ORBexpress RT:
The flagship of the product line. ORBexpress RT adds to the capabilities of the ST and GT products. ORBexpress RT implements (and exceeds) the Real-time CORBA standard. It provides support for both hard and soft real-time systems. ORBexpress RT is designed to deliver predictable time be-havior, plug-in transports and transport Quality of Service. It is available for C++ and Ada 95. Each ORB is implemented in its native language. ORBexpress RT has been ported to a variety of Real-time OS’s and embedded targets from the common to the unusual.
Vertical Markets
ORBexpress has been in use since 1997. Projects using it have reached every stage of development: from initial definition to full-scale release, deployment, and maintenance. Projects encompass many different vertical domains including:
4 Telecom/Datacom: Optical switches, routers, cell phones, communications equipment, etc.
4 Defense & Aerospace: Embedded weapons, command, control, communications and intelligence systems, avion-ics, software radio, radar, etc.
4 Process Control: Laser powered nuclear fusion research, machine vision, industrial microscopes, etc.
4 Transportation: Shipboard command, control, monitoring and alarm systems; metro fare card collection, etc.
4 Consumer Electronics: Set top boxes, internet infrastruc-ture, etc.
The cross cutting requirements of safety and security are being addressed in a new multi-year initiative by Objective Interface. These new capabilities will be applicable across all the domains of ORBexpress use.
ORBexpress supports all major Object-Oriented languages. Each ORB is written in its native language, based on a com-mon ORBexpress architecture. Each implementation contains an linkable library and an IDL translator which generates
code according to the CORBA specified language mapping. In addition, each comes with a full suite of documentation and demo programs.
C++
4 Available: On a variety of platforms from the pedestrian to the unusual
4 Fast and Lean: Optimized for high-performance, real-time and embedded systems (the charts on the performance page are for the C++ ORB)
4 Configurable: ORBexpress GT can scale for systems large to small
Ada 95
4 Heterogeneous: Connect Ada to other languages
4 Simple: Easier than writing direct bindings to C++
4 Real-time: Integrated with Ada’s multitasking and the Ada Real-time Systems Annex
4 Reconfigurable: Incrementally add new components in any language
Training and Consulting
To complement the ORBexpress product line, Objective In-terface offers professional services, to support ORBexpress users. Training is available either at our facility or on-site at customer locations. Two 3-day courses are available which take developers from initial introduction to ORBexpress pro-ficiency and project readiness. Hands-on training provides 50% lecture and 50% lab.
Project specific mentoring and consulting is also available. Objective Interface supplies a variety of services to help ensure customer’s projects success. Going beyond tech support, mentoring can help with tasks such as:
4 Working with developers to create a CORBA based ob-ject-oriented design
4 Evaluating trade-offs in the architecture
4 Determining how to obtain the best performance from ORBexpress
4 Review and support during project reviews
Mentoring and consulting can take place at on-site custom-er locations or remotely via phone, fax, internet and e-mail.
Customer Service
Solid tech support is essential to ensuring successful product use. Objective Interface is committed to first-rate tech support. When Boeing’s Phantom Works group studied Real-time CORBA ORBs for the DII COE, they surveyed users and compared tech support experiences. ORBexpress tech support was ranked the best, scoring between 1.25 and 1.75 on a scale of -2.0 to +2.0.
The first year of ORBexpress tech support is included at no extra cost with each ORBexpress license. Our dedicated tech support group is available via phone, fax, internet and e-mail to answer questions, help reproduce bugs and de-termine workarounds and solutions. ORBexpress licensees current on maintenance receive all updates and upgrades issued for their platform.
Complete Language Coverage
Available Platforms
Project Highlights
Many companies and organizations have selected ORBex-press. Noteable projects that use ORBexpress include:
4 Kingcat Yacht Monitoring, Control and Alarm: Paranor AG’s onboard ship command and control system. This sys-tem is a 5 computer bridge control system for the Kingcat M270 70ft. catamaran. It monitors the engine, fuel, electri-cal, water, etc.
4 Lawrence Livermore Labs National Ignition Facility: This extremely large application controls 192 lasers (and as-sociated actuators, sensors, motors, etc.) that send a 2 Megajoule 25ns laser pulse into a deuterium pellet. A com-bination of workstations (for user interface and scientific control) and embedded device controllers are connected by real-time CORBA.
4 Software Defined Radio / Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS): A hard real-time, embedded application that trans-mits incoming and outgoing voice, video and data radio signals via D/A, A/D and software defined waveforms. It features a common software architecture (the Software Communications Architecture or SCA) defined using IDL and standardized via the OMG. ORBexpress has been used in more than 90% of the JTRS and SDR applications to date.
Java
4 High Performance: Combining the ORBexpress archi-tecture with pure Java. (See the chart below)
4 Interoperable: With ORBexpress for Ada and C++
4 Low Risk: Multiple languages supported by a single ORB vendor
4 Simplified Support: Common support team for all sides of the program
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ORBexpress - LongsJDK ORB - Longs
Two Way CORBA Call Averages via Loopback800MHz P-III, Windows 2000, JDK v1.4.1 VM
Target same asthe Host?
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Not setting QoSper connection?
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AIXHP/UXINTEGRITYLinuxLynxOSMercury OSOSEPowerMaxQnX NeutrinoSGI IrixSun JVMSun SolarisTimeSys RT JVMTru64VxWorksWindows
ApexConcurrentDec CCEclipse JavaEGCSGCCGNATGreenHills MultiHP ACCObjectAdaSGI CCSun CCSun JavaVisual C++
ORBexpress Product Line
Product Selection
The ORBexpress product line covers all types of applications. Developers can choose the appropriate product for their appli-cation. Projects starting with one ORB can transparently move their code to the more advanced products.
Objective Interface Systems, Inc. is a leader in real-time em-bedded and high-performance communications software. Ob-jective Interface provides customers with advanced real-time connectivity software development tools for use in products thought the telecom/datacom, defense, aerospace, consumer electronics, process control, and transportation industries. A privately held company located in Herndon, Virginia, Objective Interface has been developing high-performance software ap-plications since 1989.
A pioneer in the development and adoption of advanced real-time CORBA technology, Objective Interface helps different customers understand the uses, applications, and advantages of using CORBA for seamless application connectivity. Widely recognized as experts within the real-time community, Objec-tive Interface continues to develop cutting edge, real-time commercial applications through continuous research and development efforts. Committed to customer success, Objec-tive Interface provides unprecedented customer support and market leading technologies.
Objective Interface Systems, Inc. Contact InfoCorporate Headquarters:Objective Interface Systems, Inc.13873 Park Center Road, Suite 360Herndon, VA 20171-3247
Toll Free: (800) 800-OIS7
Phone: (703) 295-6500
Fax: (703) 295-6501
E-mail: [email protected]
Web: http://www.ois.com/
Additional satellite sales offices are located in California, Texas, Maryland and Tokyo, Japan.
OBJECTIVEINTERFACE
